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SETJHABA MMUSO

Central midfielder Setjhaba Mmuso’s first team was Winners Park, whom he joined in 2006. He went on to enjoy spells with Mpumalanga Black Aces and University of Pretoria, before signing for National First Division side Royal Eagles in 2014. He is currently on the books of African All Stars, an ABC Motsepe League side from Tsakane in Gauteng and says despite being on the wrong side of 30, he has not givien up on ever making a return to the Absa Premiership. “Football is all I’ve ever known,” he adds. Setjhaba, the journey began at Mpumalanga Black Aces and that’s probably where most people will remember you from...

I really had a good time at the club and playing for them was the best thing to happen to me, especially because we managed to promote the team to the Absa Premiership twice. We played good football, especially when we promoted the club the first time, and also had fun as a group. I was a youngster in the team alongside the likes of Lindokuhle Mbatha and Lehumo Itshegetseng and we had senior players like Felix Musasa, Teboho Mokoena, Lucas Tlhomelang, Godfrey Nobula and Bafana Nhlapo guiding us. The latter was especially close to us and could be such a character at times! You always knew you were guaranteed a good laugh when you were around him. Although he had this funny side to him, he respected his job. As for Tlhomelang, he used to give trialists a tough time, always asking them whose place they were coming to take in the team. Our coach Jacob Sakala was something else...

Ha, ha, tell us about him.

I remember one time we were playing against University of Pretoria and that before we gained promotion. I played well in that game and even got Man of the Match. The following day at training, Sakala told me in front of the other players, “Setjhaba, udlalile

mfana wami (you played well my boy. But don’t develop a big head because you won’t even be able to walk properly because of that heavy head. With the way you are playing now, even KFC will sign you!” Ha, ha, ha, he wanted to say ‘Kaizer Chiefs’. We all laughed at him so much that other guys were even rolling on the ground. That was Sakala for you. You know, we liked going to church before games, for some divine intervention. So this one time we went to church and, as the pastor was busy praying, Sakala fell asleep, ha, ha, ha. It was only after the men of cloth uttered his ‘Amen’ that we realised our coach was in another world, so to speak. Maybe the prayer was just that good and soothing that Sakala mistook it for a lullaby. So I went close to him, clapped my hands to awaken him and said, “Coach, wake up!” He woke up and asked, “Kwenzakalani (What’s happening)?” Ha, ha, ha. Other than that, he was a good motivator and the players loved him. Even now, I do get to see him, especially during games.

There must be a few funny incidents to share...

wwheneverenever we hada to doo lapsaps arounaround the te field, as he was a pacey player. Our coach was Sammy Troughton. But on this particular occasion, as we were running, you could see the guy was not feeling well. He was feeling dizzy. The coach asked him, “Khumo, what’s wrong with you?” He responded, “Hey coach, I ate four

slices, I almost died!” It turns out he was not used to eating before training, as he always preferred eating afterwards, so the body did not respond well to his newfound eating habit. He had to go out and watch training from the sidelines. Needless to say, we gave him a bit of a tough time about that one for a while. I was staying in the same flat with Sibusiso ‘Shorty’ Themba and Tebogo Monyai did not stay far from us, so we used to pick him up for training. Ha, ha, ha, every day he had an excuse ready for not wanting to go. We would phone him on the way and he would not pick up our calls. Hiss most frequentrequent excuse was,was “Shorty,orty I’m m tired, my friend. I’ve never slept like this.” Oh, talking of Themba, I also played with him at Tuks, where he was my roommate. He could be a bit of a character, too, I’m telling you. Since I’m from Duduza, he used to like saying to me, “Setjhaba, ugcine nini ukubhema? Phela niyabhema nina lapha e (when last did you smoke? Thing is, you smoke a lot there in) Duduza.” Ha, ha, ha, he was always under this impression that every guy from my township was a dagga smoker. But he was a good guy. I also played under Troughton there and he related well to the players. He had his moments to share jokes with the guys and it was always fun. He used to punctuate almost every sentence of his with ‘for me’ and we used to tease him a lot about that. Sure! ure Another coach I played under was Innocent Mayoyo when I was starting out at Winners Park and he was funny by nature. Humour was a God-given gift for him. He would select the team to play on the weekend a day before the game at training, but needed no second invitation to take a player out of the team if he felt like it. For example, he would say, “Ngizokuthini uma ungakwazi

noku trapper (What am I going to do with you if you can’t even trap)? You are out of my team!” He also detested players who would wear earrings and was a strict disciplinarian. Bernard Molekwa, now assistant coach at Polokwane City, was my captain there and he was a staunch member of the ZCC. We used to go to Moria and they would give us some stuff that liked like Vaseline, for personal use. Buti Sithole used to stay with us at the clubhouse and the girls were always crazy about him. If he was not getting endless calls from them, then he was in their company – he surely was a magnet for them. Ha, ha, ha, I know he will kill me for this! I used to say to him, “Umubi kanje?

Liyakubambela ibhola (But you’re so ugly. Football’s getting the girls for you).” Being one from KwaZulu-Natal, he could own the dance floor as well.

Have you ever seen teammates fighting?

The only time I saw people fighting was at Aces and it was the coaches. I don’t know what the cause of the argument was. Do you still remember Michel Babale? He was fighting with Cyprian Maimane in the change room and they ended up exchanging blows, before being restrained. It almost got out of hand! There was also a bit of pushing around between Lebogang Mothibantwa and I when we played Orlando Pirates at Witbank Stadium the one time, but it wasn’t a fight per se. It happened during a corner kick and we started pushing each other around, as it always happens in dead-ball situations. He swore at me in Afrikaans, but much to his shock, I swore back at him in the same language, ha, ha, ha. That’s when we exchanged unprintable words and got a little too close to each other for comfort. The referee stopped the fight before it even started.

Well, we know Mothibantwa is reading this and we wouldn’t mind organising a ‘rematch’ to settle the score. As men, you definitely can do better than just shoving each other around...

Ha, ha, ha!

Okay, any last story before we let you bounce?

Yeah. After we beat Thanda Royal Zulu in the relegation/promotion play-offs in Durban to win promotion to the elite league, we were over the moon and went out to celebrate. Where we were camping was along the beachfront and we were in one of the top floors. We came back to the hotel in the early hours of the morning. Obviously, it was dark. Itshegetseng went to open the window of the room, looked down and then turned to us and said, “Guys, come, see, penguins! There they are, moving around!” Long story short, it was people that he was seeing. Drinking can be dangerous, ha, ha, ha.

“The girls were always crazy about him.”